Media-Savvy

Everyone needs a story (or two) .

It’s as important as what you do, what you wear or what you look like. When we do media interview coaching for an actor or actress to go on the Letterman show, the first thing we do as part of our media strategy is to ask them to start telling us stories. Stories about their families, friends, first jobs, their latest movies, whatever. Believe me not all of what we hear from the biggest stars are gems. Some are dreadfully boring with very little punchline. But it’s a game of numbers the more they come up with the greater chance that we will find one worth repeating. Sometimes it can take hours to come up with six or seven good ones, but when they hit — BAM you know it’s a homerun!!!

The same theory applies to anyone who gets up before strangers you are trying to impress, whether it’s at a cocktail party or in front of 1,000 people — you need to get your stories down. You know the ones that work time after time.

Here is a game that everyone should play who is even considering media coaching. Watch your favorite talk-show, Leno, Letterman, Ellen and try and come up with a story that you think would be a hit on one of those shows. When you find it, I’ll bet you can adapt it as your own anecdote for any presentation. Try it out on your wife, husband or a friend or better yet try it out in this blog and we’ll tell you what will probably work as a story that makes you interesting, engaging and the kind of person that someone would want to know more about. It’s the first step in getting “booked” on the road to your own presentation success.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 11:58 am and is filed under Media Coaching, Media Consulting, Media Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.